San Francisco - Los Angeles / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2735W) / VFR-IFR

This flight to Los Angeles was two hours long, which is a long time in my book.

It was getting dark as I left KSFO. I took 28R, like most pilots who had checked the wind (ATC was offline), but some were taking off on 1L and 1R, so you had to keep your eyes open. Right downwind off 28R and then I crossed the field to make my way to OSI on V25, which I would follow all the way to VTU.

I started VFR, but updated weather from LAX made it sound like it might soon be IFR, so on the way to RZS I asked for a pop-up IFR clearance to my destination. I rarely ask for pop-up IFR clearances, so it was a refreshing change for me … and for ATC, which doesn't handle a lot of pop-ups, either (at least on VATSIM). I was ultimately cleared direct RZS direct VTU direct SADDE direct SMO, at 6000. Everything went very smoothly. I took the ILS approach to 25L, but in fact visual conditions prevailed and I could have done a visual approach, too. In any case, it perked both me and ATC up, since it was out of the ordinary. On VATSIM, at least, traffic tends to be overwhelmingly big iron on a handful of routes (the ones that pilots who can only push buttons on the FMC can handle). Pop-up IFR into LAX is quite unusual. I'll have to do it again sometime.

Lots of turbulence on both this flight and the preceding flight. No flickering of scenery, which was interesting.

Tracy - San Francisco / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2735W) / VFR

This was a short flight from Tracy to San Francisco. I didn't bother to file a flight plan. Excitement was limited to having an Airbus only a few miles in front of me on final to 28R. I was close enough to see the aircraft rolling out as I approached. I forgot to worry about wake turbulence, but I didn't feel anything.

San Francisco - Los Angeles / Boeing 737-800 (SWA273) / IFR

This flight went find, until I started in on the SADDE6 arrival. I had gone a long way without reaching T/D and ATC asked me why I was not descending. I looked at the ND and discovered that FIM wasn't were it belonged: it was way south of SYMON, instead of way north. As a result, I was overshooting SYMON and not descending. I made direct for SYMON and that helped, but it was a very steep descent into the airport as ATC gave me vectors to the 24R approach. Somehow I managed, but later I discovered that the latest procedure files are all messed up.

I still get flickering of the ground at add-on airports, too, and I don't know why.

Los Angeles - Santa Barbara - Bakersfield / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2734W) / VFR

This was a pleasant, short flight from Los Angeles to Bakersfield via Santa Barbara (hardly a straight line, I know, but it was just for fun).

I left Los Angeles turning north along the shoreline, and followed the Pacific Coast Highway and/or the shoreline for most of the way, except to skip around the restricted airspace southwest of VTU (R-2519).

At Santa Barbara I did some touch-and-go operations then a full stop, and shortly thereafter I left again for Bakersfield, which I flew to directly. At Bakersfield I did a single touch-and-go, then a full stop, because the visibility was right at minimums.

My pattern work is terrible in the Baron. When I'm aligned in the pattern, I'm too high or low. When I'm at the right pattern altitude, I'm misaligned. I need a lot more practice.

Las Vegas - Phoenix / Boeing 737-800 (SWA1643) / IFR

This flight was routine and smooth, mirroring the real-life flight almost perfectly, with only two minutes or so of difference for the departure and arrival times.

SWA1643 had a funny route, so I followed it. Everything went pretty well, and the weather was nice. However, I had a devil of a time trying to meet a speed constraint on the MAIER2 arrival into Sky Harbor: when I pressed the MCP button to intervene on the speed, and tried to switch from Mach to KIAS, it just refused to switch. I had to guesstimate and constantly adjust the speed as I descended. I'll have to look that up and see if there are conditions under which the MCP refuses to switch to KIAS.

Other than that, all went well.

Las Vegas - Desert Rock - Las Vegas / Cessna Skyland 182RG (N7166V) / VFR

I undertook these flights late in the day, starting out from my preferred Signature FBO at the west end of the field (they have a lot of parking for small aircraft). Winds allowed me to trundle over to runway 1L and take off directly towards my destination of Desert Rock, a tiny, private airport perilously close to the restricted airspace of the Nellis range (which includes Area 51, although that is quite far from the border of the airspace).

I know from experience and charts that as long as I stay south and west of Highway 95, I'm good. Drifting to the other side of the highway can put me directly into the forbidden box, so I always keep that highway on my right when going out to the nearby airports. I spent most of the time at 6500 than descended considerably lower as Highway 95 turned west. I used the Mercury NDB to double-check my route, as it is very close to Desert Rock. The airport itself was hard to see until I was only a few miles away.

I landed very smoothly and taxied over to the small ramp. The airport actually is inside the range (but not inside restricted airspace) and belongs to the Department of Energy. Of course, I took care to obtain permission from the DoE before landing. You can get permission for all sorts of things in virtual skies.

I took a nap for about two hours while the aircraft was tied down outside, and then went out to fly back to Las Vegas. It was dark by then. Flying in the dark always makes me nervous, as I've said before, but since I know this area from previous flights and had just flown through it, I wasn't too worried.

Winds were from the northeast, so I took care to immediately turn right to avoid the bad boxes after take-off. I scurried over to the south side of the highway and then followed it into Las Vegas. There are some power lines in parallel with the highway on the south side that I could just barely see in the darkness (mostly the towers, that is), and I used that to help make sure that I didn't drift towards the very high terrain off to my right (some of the mountains reach 10,000 feet). All went well and after passing North Las Vegas I made a right downwind onto 25R at KLAS. The landing was very smooth indeed, and I taxied back over to Signature. It occurred to me a bit too late that I could have landed long and saved time; I'll think about that next time.

Phoenix - Las Vegas / Boeing 737-800 (SWA852) / IFR

This was a very nice little flight from Phoenix to Sin City. My simulated flight almost perfectly mirrored the real-world flight, with nearly identical departure and arrival times. The weather was blazingly hot (I'm glad I didn't have to endure it for real), but it was clear.

I've been making an effort to hand-fly take-offs and landings for longer periods in the large jets, and I'm getting better at it. Flying big iron is very different from flying small aircraft, of course. You have to anticipate a lot more in a large aircraft, since it takes a while for it to respond to anything you do. For example, if I increase power to reduce my descent rate in an approach, I already start backing off even before the full effect of the power increase becomes apparent, because it takes a while for the aircraft to actually do what I've asked. If I wait too long, my descent rate diminishes too much, and then I can easily get into a vicious circle of overcorrection. On a small airplane, this is far less apparent, and you can nearly adjust things in real time, although no aircraft reacts instantly to anything.

Anyway, all went well on this flight … except that some American Airlines plane (looked like a 767) was blocking my assigned gate (C24) at Las Vegas, which peeved me a bit. I parked at C22 instead.